Blue Isle Mediterranean Yogurt Spread

When Blue Isle told me they were sending samples of their Mediterranean spreads, I thought I would get one or two containers or at least a coupon to get some at my local store. Behold, they sent me 10 containers, two of each flavor. What to do, what to do...

I brought the spreads to a few holiday dinners and tasted them on their own. My favorites were the spicy vegetable, original, and blueberry flavors. They hold up pretty firmly and have the consistency of a softer cream cheese. It's much less of a dip and much more of a spread.

Blue Isle is available in the following flavors:

·       Original

·       Honey

·       Blueberry

·       French Onion

·       Spicy Vegetable

Available for purchase at Harmon’s, Mollie Stones, Central Market, Fiesta Mart, The Fresh Market, New Seasons, H-E-B, Lucky’s, QFC, Fred Meyer, Jon’s Marketplace, Strack and Van Til, at natural food stores and better supermarkets nationwide.

Suggested retail price is $3.29 for an 8 oz tub.

When my friend invited us to her house for the holidays, I thought it'd be a great chance to try my favorite Cheesecake recipe using a mix of the Blue Isle plain and honey flavors. I replaced cream cheese with the spreads. It is a lower calorie, healthier version. I'll call it probiotic cheesecake. hee hee

I didn't have graham crackers for a crust so I used Pamela's gluten free brownie mix for the bottom. This is a sample size. All you do is add water and oil to the mix. Very easy and very tasty. It made the cheesecake even healthier!

I halved the recipe to make only 8 cakes.

The shape didn't hold up perfectly but I was surprised that it did hold up at all given the softness of the replacement ingredients. I'm really impressed. The texture was also quite close to cheesecake. It has a little more squish when bitten but otherwise it's very similar. The probiotic cheesecake tastes mostly like the normal version, just less indulgent. It's sweet and creamy yet not rich like cheesecake. I gained some of my pregnancy weight during the winter by eating cheesecake so I welcome a healthier, lower calorie version. I am now a converted fan of replacing cream cheese with Blue Isle yogurt spread.

On another attempt, I thought I would try something savory with the spreads by using my favorite Recipe for spinach dip. Once again, I replaced cream cheese with Blue Isle yogurt spread plain flavor and replaced sour cream with Greek yogurt. The spinach dip tasted very close to the original version. Once again less rich but in a savory dish like this, I didn't mind so much. It doesn't spread as smoothly as the original version does but the taste is about the same. Hooray to health!

Thanks again to Blue Isle for sending me these samples. I truly think it's a great product and would actually buy it in stores. Especially to use as a cream cheese replacement.

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